Politics

Indonesia’s President Jokowi to meet Putin in Russia ahead of Bali G20

Jakarta, Jun 21 (EFE).- Indonesian authorities confirmed Tuesday that president Joko Widodo is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during an official trip to Russia scheduled for next week.

Mahfud MD, coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, told reporters Monday that Jokowi, as the Indonesian president is known, was hoping to meet with the Kremlin chief on June 30, according to the Antara news agency.

“Yes, that is the president’s agenda,” Mahfud told reporters.

“There is a special team for it (the state visit),” the minister was quoted as saying.

The Indonesian president is scheduled to travel to Germany to participate in a G7 summit on June 26-28 at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps in Germany ahead of Indonesia hosting the G20 later this year.

Despite pressure from the international community, including the United States, Canada and Australia, for Putin to be vetoed at the summit that brings together the world’s 20 largest economies, Indonesia has not blocked the Russian president from attending.

Putin has since confirmed he will be attending the G20 summit on November 15-16 on the Indonesian island of Bali.

A Kremlin source told the Russian state-backed news agency Tass that Putin “will definitely go” although the format is yet to be decided.

In April, the Indonesian president invited Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the G20, stating that his nation was ready to “contribute to the peace effort.”

On April 20, officials from the European Union, US, France and Canada walked out of a G20 meeting in Washington to protest Russia’s presence following its invasion of Ukraine.

The representatives left the meeting just as Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov started his intervention.

In 2014, the G7 members called off the G8 summit scheduled for June in the Russian city of Sochi and suspended Moscow from the group over its annexation of Crimea that year.EFE

hs-grc/ch/jt

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